AML invests over €1 million in 23 projects for disadvantaged communities

The Lisbon Metropolitan Area (AML) has a plan to respond to the most disadvantaged communities, seeking social inclusion and solving situations of deprivation and exclusion. Thus, the Metropolitan Support Plan for Disadvantaged Communities in AMLThe report, published in October last year, proposes 31 integrated interventions across the metropolitan area in public space, culture, citizenship, education, employment and health.

The 31 action plans of this programme will be materialized in about 650 projects in disadvantaged communities in the 18 municipalities of the Lisbon metropolitan area. Of the total, some 23 are considered very large projects, with investments of more than EUR 1 million, and together they account for about 40% of the total investment envelope of more than EUR 118 million.

Around 300 projects (about 50% of the total), of both tangible and intangible characteristics, are already being implemented with the funds from the PRR - Recovery and Resilience Plan. The projects will have to be fully completed by December 2025. The remaining interventions should be financed with other EU funding instruments.

Interventions in disadvantaged communities include construction and upgrading of schools, construction and upgrading of sports fields, upgrading of public spaces, health projects, social innovation incubators, construction of family health units, creation of civic centers, soft mobility projects., etc.

On July 7, another meeting of the metropolitan working group of disadvantaged communities was held at the headquarters of the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, involving more than 50 participants. In this meeting, in addition to a more detailed state of play regarding the very large-scale projects being developed by the municipalities, the preparation of the six biannual local meetings, which aim to give notoriety to the various initiatives underway in the local communities, was also addressed. Lisbon, Alcochete, Loures, Barreiro, Sintra and Setúbal - as leaders of territorial interventions with a subregional impact - will be the chosen locations for these meetings, which will take place between September this year and June 2025.

Three metropolitan seminars will also be held, which will aim to give national notoriety to the AML Metropolitan Plan for the Support of Disadvantaged Communities and to discuss social inclusion policies, projects and practices in the Lisbon metropolis. They will be thematic seminars, focused on the seven axes of the plan, and will be attended by members of the government, mayors, experts, and civil society organizations. They will take place in Vila Franca de Xira, Seixal and Cascais between November this year and November 2025.

The main objective of the Metropolitan Support Plan for Disadvantaged Communities of AML (PMACD-AML) is to regenerate and promote the social inclusion of disadvantaged communities living in situations of deprivation and exclusion in the Lisbon metropolitan area. The plan is structured to provide answers in seven intervention axes, where several social and economic vulnerabilities are concentrated: environment and valorization of public space, culture and creativity, education, citizenship and empowerment of communities, employment and local economy, health and social dynamization.